Born Under the Right Star
by Fire Kitten
Summary: No matter what adventure they went on, Usopp noticed that every time they had someone to help out. And this time, their help might be more subtly crucial then he could have fathomed. [Post-timeskip, nakamaship]


**Disclaimer:** I do not own One Piece

**Rating:** K+

**Summary:** No matter what adventure they went on, Usopp noticed that every time they had someone to help out. And this time, their help might be more subtly crucial then he could have fathomed.

**Warnings:** Language and is post-time skip. Probably has slight spoilers.

_Just something that occurred to me one day about a certain Devil Fruit power and wanted to get it out in writing since the idea wouldn't leave me alone, along with some nakamaship._

* * *

Usopp had to wonder who it was in their crew that was born under a lucky star. It couldn't be Zoro, since he nearly died in every battle he was in; not Sanji, since he had no fortune with the ladies; trouble followed Luffy everywhere he went and it couldn't be him either because… well, it just couldn't. He wouldn't even consider Chopper, Robin, Brook or Franky because if they didn't have luck before meeting those four, their little crew probably would have died long before ever reaching the Grand Line. That left Nami, but other than with money, he didn't really see her as all that lucky either.

Maybe it was Merry then. Even gone, maybe Merry's spirit was still looking out for them?

Either way,_ something_ was. Because how could it be that every adventure they went on in this terrifying, wonderful, unpredictable sea, they always found someone who would help them just when they needed it? Sabaody had Rayleigh-san; Thriller Bark had Lulu; Enies Lobby had, well, what seemed like half of Water 7; Skypiea had Conis and her father; Alabasta had… well that perverted Eyelashes and Bon-Chan; Dragon helped them out of Loguetown and Nojiko and Genzo in Cocoyasi. Now, even the New World, it seemed this fortune was following them.

And, on the verge of what Usopp could just feel was their biggest battle yet just islands short of Raftel, he was practically ecstatic to know it was his father's crew that would be looking out for their backs this time.

The encounter had been a total shock; but after such a thing wore off, the two crews couldn't help but go all out with a celebration. They partied well into the night, most of them sleeping off the rest of the morning. By the time noon rolled around and they were all rolling out of whatever stupor they found themselves in, the Straw Hats and some of the Red Hairs headed for town, leaving himself and Chopper behind to watch Sunny. Usopp didn't even need to draw sticks, happily volunteering to stay behind since his father would be as well.

And now they found themselves sitting on the edge of Sunny's railing, shooting towards the opposite end where Chopper had set up some empty cola bottles for them to shoot, having a small competition with each other. It was, in retrospect, easy shooting but anything impressed the young reindeer.

"Can't believe you're making these shots with that thing." Yasopp said, watching his son pull back the elastic of the slingshot, aiming for the two bottles stacked up on each other.

"Heh, this is easy." Usopp boasted, eyeing Chopper who was sitting on the tree bench, eyes intent on the bottles. He lowered his voice some all the same, "You should have seen me at Enies Lobby. I was hitting Marines left and right on the Bridge of Hesitation from the Tower of Justice." He shot the lead star, the two bottles bursting into glass and Chopper gave a cheer.

"That was you?" His dad said in disbelief.

Usopp scratched under his chin, blushing some and he smiled. "Yeaaah."

His dad gave a whistle of appreciation, his gun going off like a whip crack and another maroon-colored bottle turned into nothing but shards. Chopper was practically squealing, jumping down from the bench to go and set up more bottles. "You know," His dad said with a fond smile as he watched the reindeer, "He reminds me of you. Before I left, you used to get all excited about me making easy shots like this too."

Usopp snorted softly, remembering those days. "Heh, yeah well, it was cool then – ACK!"

"Oh, so it's not cool now?!" His dad said, having his son in a vicious headlock that had him squirming and almost falling off the railing.

"No, it's still cool! Still cool!" He reassured, sighing in relief when he was let go. "Maybe we should get Chopper to throw them for us. He's got a good arm you know."

Whether his father was about to agree to this or not, Usopp would never know for there was a suddenly commotion down on the beach. It made them head to the bow of the ship, Chopper hurrying after when he noticed his entertainment leaving, jumping onto the railing beside them when they stopped. They saw some of the Red Hairs gather around, talking rapidly and it filled Usopp with a sense of… well, 'he-knew-something-went-wrong' disease.

"Hey!" His dad called, "What's going on?"

Ben Beckham, the first mate, turned his head to regard them, then called, "You three better come down here! We have a problem."

Oh, why couldn't his diseases ever be wrong?

* * *

"Blackbeard's here?!" Usopp and Chopper cried together, the latter's hair looking a bit ruffled.

Ben nodded calmly, but Yasopp was frowning seriously, crossing his arms. "You think he's going after Shanks?"

"Doubtful. His reputation with the rookies lately speaks for itself. Just last week I heard Kidd ran into some trouble with him. If he's going after any crew…" Ben trailed off, shooting a meaningful look to Chopper and Usopp, "it's probably yours."

"WAAAAH WHAT DO WE DO?!" Chopper cried, grabbing onto his hat and running in circles.

"O-Oi! Calm down Chopper." Usopp said, doing his best to not also freak out because that would so not look manly in front of his father. "Those guys can take care of themselves. Zoro, Sanji and Luffy won't let anything happen."

There was a sigh, one that spoke of worse news on the horizon. "It's not that simple." Ben said.

See? Totally called it.

"What do you mean?" Usopp asked warily.

"Blackbeard isn't just after your crew, he's after the devil fruit users in your crew." Beckham said. "Blackbeard has the logia type darkness fruit. At the war, we're not sure how he did it, but he used that power to steal Whitebeard's devil fruit power when he died. So now, he has both. Since then, he's been attacking crews at random; ones rumored or known to have strong devil fruit users. Though we don't know just how many he could possibly obtain, if we assume it's infinite…"

Usopp's eyes couldn't get any wider and his heart felt like it was trying to race the sea train it was going so fast even though the news wasn't exactly new to him. "R-Right…" He said, swallowing because he found his mouth dry. How could something like this slip his mind? "Jinbei told us back on Fishman Island. Wait a second… so… he's going to try and take… take Luffy's powers? And our other nakama's?" Beckham didn't answer, but the look he was giving him was not one of comfort.

"It's not just that." His father added, "Blackbeard's ability allows him to also cancel out devil fruit powers when he comes in physical contact with them." Now _that_ was new.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Usopp cried as he threw his hands up, feeling anger and panic clash inside him. "What kind of ridiculous power is this?!"

"Usopp, what does that mean?" Chopper asked, not quite following.

"It means if he touches Luffy, he won't be a rubber man." Usopp said, fingers clenching into a fist. "Or if he catches you you'll just be a reindeer. And if he grabs Robin she won't be able to sprout any of her extra limbs. And if he gets Brook-" His voice choked and the shock that made his brain come to a screeching halt was almost physically painful. He felt himself sway a bit on his feet. Oh god… "If… he touches Brook… Brook will die." Shit… this wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. "And he'll want Brook's power more than anyone's."

Chopper's eyes widened, his mind catching up to the reality of the situation. "Then… Then we've got to warn him!" The reindeer was suddenly in walk point, running almost randomly down the beach as he tried to catch the skeleton's scent.

Usopp glanced up at the Red Hairs hopefully and asked, "Can you guys take care of Sunny for us?"

"Of course but-" His father looked like he wanted to argue but wasn't given a chance.

"USOPP! I GOT IT!"

"Thanks!" Usopp said hurriedly, before running towards the doctor, calling as he did so, "Good job! He should still be with Sanji, so we'll get him to go find Robin and Nami! We've got the get to them before that bastard does!"

"Right!" Chopper said, clopping one hoof determinedly. Just as Usopp was jumping onto his back, he heard a question from Beckham.

"What about Luffy?"

"I don't need to worry about him." Usopp looked back, grinning, "Luffy'll be the one kicking his ass!" His fingers gripped onto the brown fur below him. "Come on Chopper, we got to hurry!"

"Right!"

The two rode away, never knowing of the surprised crew they left behind. Beckham was the first to come out of it, glancing at their own sharpshooter who was watching the path his son was quickly disappearing on with a mixture of fondness, pride and worry. "Pretty brave kid you got there."

"Naturally."

"He's got a lot of faith in his Captain."

"As he should."

"He'll probably be alright."

"Yeah…"

"You're still going after him, huh?"

_Click_, the hammer of the gun retorted as it was pulled back. "Damn straight."

Beckham sighed then grinned, pulling out his own gun. "Guess I better come with. Knowing the boss, he's probably in trouble anyways."

* * *

I… do not know what this is. This story was probably kind of dumb in retrospect. And random. And… I don't know.

But, and this is what I gathered from the wiki page at least (and I know now, confirmed by Jinbei in the latest episode), it does appear to imply Blackbeard is off searching for/trying to steal devil fruit powers, implying he can obtain a possibly infinite amount. And then I thought eventually he'd go after the Mugiwara's for theirs and since I see his ability to 'cancel out' devil fruit powers with his touch as a literal thing, that's where the whole theory with Brook comes in. So yeah, just random thoughts and, oh, some Usopp bonding with his dad because I just can't get enough of that.

P.S. I totally re-watched a few early Skypeia episodes and realized there is a small inaccuracy with my other fanfic, _Rendezvous Point_. There is a point in the arc which Van Augur kills some seagulls and they fall dead on the deck of the Merry. I thought he did this right before the crew rode the knock-up stream to Skypeia and mentioned it in my other fanfic as something Usopp witnessed but I was wrong; this happens shortly before the Mugiwaras get to Jaya. So, I rewatched this scene and realized no one could have known Van was the killer at all… since he was on a roof in town and apparently he did it so far across the ocean_ Jaya wasn't even in sight of the Merry_. So apparently Van Augur can shoot far…_ really_ far.

Oh god Usopp, I am so scared for you when you have to face him :'(. I hope your new badassery is enough to counter that kind of sniping.

Anyways, thanks for reading!


End file.
